Euro 2024: Belgium misses entry against Slovakia and puts itself under pressure

Romelu Lukaku a pensé égaliser dans les cinq dernières minutes du match contre la Slovaquie. dpa – Uwe Anspach

La Belgique, brouillonne, a pataugé lors de son premier match de l'Euro 2024 et s'est inclinée face à la Slovaquie 0-1, ce lundi 17 juin à Francfort (groupe E).

The men of the Italian-German coach Domenico Tedesco appeared listless, uninspired, like their playmaker Kevin De Bruyne, who was extinguished.

After a few good sequences, the Belgians were surprised in the 7th minute. Taking advantage of a mistake by Jérémy Doku, Ivan Schranz opened the scoring for the Slovaks by beating Koen Casteels. They never recovered despite an obvious territorial domination.

The Belgian goalkeeper, replacing Thibaut Courtois, the Real Madrid goalkeeper who is absent from the tournament, even avoided the 0-2 shortly before the break on a new attempt by Schranz. Opposite, before the break, Romelu Lukaku had a goal chance three times without taking advantage.

Goals disallowed

After the break, De Bruyne and his teammates still failed to put their opponents in difficulty despite several chances and a more open game. The Red Devils put the pressure on. But in vain. Like Johan Bakayoko who was close to equalizing on the hour mark shortly before a goal from Lukaku was disallowed for an offside position.

Same scenario two minutes from the end when a new goal from Lukaku was again disallowed by the VAR for a handball. Belgium will have every interest in winning its next match on Saturday against Romania, who beat Ukraine 3-0 on Monday afternoon, when Slovakia will face Ukraine.